Cleansing Fire

by D. L. Harrison

  We arrived at the area of the city ship explosion, and we were silent as we all stared out of the windows, looking for a rather large entrance into one of the mountains. I didn’t think we’d be able to miss it, the ancient dragon had been the size of a seven forty seven, it’d be a really big hole. We flew around the valley and looked at all the mountains that surrounded it, circling each one.

  No dice.

  We expanded the search to all the mountains in the surrounding valleys. It took us a good twenty minutes, and we’d circled about ten mountains before we found it. The entrance was as large and obvious as I’d hoped.

  I took the ship down into the trees, about a half mile away in the valley next to that mountain, and we all piled out.

  Dan gestured, and the ship sunk into the ground. I thought it’d be fine, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some orc or hobgoblin tribe was nearby. It was mountains after all, which is where the evil races preferred to call home. Still, we’d been cloaked while in the air, unless they were very close and see us going into the dragon’s lair, it wouldn’t be an issue at all.

  “We ready for this?”

  Steve said, “I need me some dragon scale armor and boots.”

  I snickered, “That would look cool.”

  Gwen said, “Me too.”

  I grinned, and without missing a beat said, “That would look sexy.”

  Gwen smirked, and blushed, at the same time.

  Dan said, “Let’s do this. And… no fire.”

  I snorted at him getting me back, “Noted. Mr. sensitive.”

  Cassie giggled.

  It never failed, bring on the silliness right before a battle. The only exception was when the battle was a surprise, like back in the city. It really did help with the nerves. And… invading a lair to kill dragons was definitely nerve wracking…

  The tunnel was huge, and it went down at an angle, deep into the ground underneath the mountain. Gwen had us cloaked, but her mana was full, she was beyond the point where it cost less to maintain a cloak around all of us, than what she got back from her mana regen.

  My four spells were ready. Area and personal ice spike attacks, the ice wall defense, and mass healing. The latter of which I’d switched back to party targets only. Four battle spells anyway. Five spells in total, but I’ve had the detect and assess life going for about twenty levels, all the time even outside of battle, it was easy to forget. It’d stopped feeling like a spell a long time ago, and more just a natural thing that was always there at my whim.

  Another weird thing about that spell was mana shields didn’t stop it, only protection against Life Sphere could make it fail. The mana shield was to stop offensive magic only, the reason for that was it didn’t stop beneficial spells, like Lara’s stat boost, or healing for that matter. If it did, it would be as bad as it was good. Apparently detect life and assess fell on the side of non-combatant magic.

  The tunnel was so large it was daunting, knowing it needed to be to be in order to fit the big ass dragon. So far there was no outcry, and I knew we were close enough for the ancient to detect. I was sure his or her senses were tracking us warily however. Maybe it wouldn’t attack, or… maybe it was simply waiting for us to get in far enough that we couldn’t escape.

  Oh shit, I’m an idiot. Not quite a total moron though, since I thought of it before it was too late.

  “Damnit. We do have distractions, I just always forget because we usually don’t need them. Cassie, Dan, and I will cast elementals first thing, water, stone, and air, they may take a few of the dragons’ attentions, for a round or two until they die in fire. Not for long, but maybe long enough to lower the odds a bit.”

  Elementals were pretty much immune to normal damage, but dragon fire was very magical and would rip right through them. Still, they might even do some damage first, or at least batter the dragons’ mana shields.

  Steve chuckled, “If there’s a pile of corpses, I might be able to help with that distraction.”

  “Bones maybe, and good idea.”

  The tunnel seemed to go on for quite a while, but that could have just been the adrenaline and fast heart beat skewing time. I’d think that I’d been used to it by then, but even without the risk of a final death, every single fight got my blood pumping. Both exciting and terrifying. I both loved and hated it.

  The tunnel ended at the entrance to a cavern that was vast beyond belief. The only underground cavern I’d seen that was bigger, was the one that housed the gray dwarf city. This one wasn’t much smaller either. We paused for a moment, and took it in.

  The dragons did have separate lairs, sort of.

  Straight ahead, in the middle of the wall on the other side, was a huge cave attached to the large cavern, it was more of an open amphitheater or grotto. The ancient red looked like it was sleeping, but I didn’t buy it. Beyond it, I could see the winking of gold and jewels, its hoard.

  On either side, going around the edge of the cavern was ten more amphitheater type caves, with the younger dragons in them. Of course, four of those were empty, with three being used to each side. They had hoards too, behind them, but much smaller. Small was relative though, the hoards were a pile of jewels, gold, and other coin piled at least ten feet high. The ancient dragon’s hoard had multiple piles, all twice as big. The smaller dragons looked to be sleeping as well, and maybe they were, while they digested the humans they’d eaten.

  Damned dragons, what was Gaia thinking?

  The cavern itself had a lot of empty space, but it wasn’t completely empty. It had a deep pit, full of bones. There were also five live guards in there. It was deep enough with smooth enough walls to keep them trapped down there, but not so deep one of their long necks couldn’t dip down and bite one.

  Lastly, there were two huts near the pit.

  “I’d been joking, but maybe they do keep a handful of slaves.”

  Gwen snickered.

  “Alright, Cassie, send the air elemental to the hole on the right of the ancient. Dan take the next one, and I’ll take the third young dragon all the way on the right with my elemental. That should hopefully keep them out of the fight for a round or two. Once I cast my elemental, I’m going to nail the furthest one on the left with two ice spikes. No, make that three ice spikes. Dan, you’re going to dig a side tunnel for your first turn. If the ancient decides to attack us, we’ll never get out alive without an escape route. I bet he could fill this entire tunnel to the surface with fire. Our only chance to run will be your side tunnel, and if we have to retreat you can close it up behind us.”

  No doubt we’d have an ancient dragon digging into the rock with his claws to get at us, but we should be able to move fast enough. I hoped.

  Steve said, “You really think we can escape if he decides to kill us?”

  No, not a chance in hell. Even if we leave his line of sight and live to tunnel out through the rock, the ancient will be waiting for us by the time we get outside.

  “Of course,” I lied.

  The others smirked, I was a terrible liar. Besides, there was a chance, no matter how slim.

  “Alright, let’s do this, before we come to our senses.”

  Cassie grinned, and cast an air elemental, as Dan and I cast ours. They ran for the three dragons on the right to keep them busy.

  I looked at the last dragon on the left, and I shot three ice spikes in quick succession. As I’d suspected, the first destroyed its mana shield, the second and third both caused a little over ten thousand hit points of damage each.

  Gwen shot a shadow spike, and Steve cast a ball of miasma into the pit. All the bones started to shake, and they formed into about sixty skeletons as they rose up. The guards started to freak out, but then they looked up at us in shock and hope.

  Dan and Cassie shot out a stone spike and lightning bolt last, which finished off the dragon all the way on the left. Dan was also opening up the passage in the wall of the huge tunnel, like me his offensive spell was pre-cast and being maintained by mana per seco
nd, which gave him the option to send the attack with a single quick thought, and still have time to do a second thing.

  One down, five to go, and one we hoped would stay asleep.

  That was pretty much our surprise attack, and our free shots were over as the other five young dragons awoke and roared. It was a surreal moment, and more terrifying than I could say. Dragons were terrifying, never mind we could kill one of them fairly quickly. It was… visceral. I’d been on the new world a while, but I wasn’t sure I’d done anything quite this crazy before. I also had to wait a few more seconds before I could attack again.

  The distraction worked, and the three dragons on the right struck out with claws, tail, and jaws. Dragons were evil, but also smart and cunning, and far from stupid, but apparently like humans, they were creatures of pure instinct and not all that intelligent or thoughtful when startled out of a sleep. They’d adjust, think, and kill the elementals with fire eventually. But in that first moment of wakefulness, the elementals were pummeling the dragons with ice, air, and stone attacks, while the dragons’ non-magical attacks weren’t doing crap back. Their sleepy confusion wouldn’t last for long, but I’d take a few extra moments of confusion any day. It even made sense, a dragon’s fire was a distance weapon, of course they’d use claws and bite in a melee attack if an enemy was dumb enough to get that close.

  So far, the ancient dragon didn’t move. Which just made it all the more surreal.

  The two young dragons snaked their necks and turned their heads to face us. They both took in deep breaths, which was the signal they were about to fire. I raised the ice wall in front of us, and then another a few feet behind it. Magic always hit, except when the enemy suddenly hid himself from sight. A huge ice wall counted that way.

  A second before the ice walls went up, I noticed out of the corner of my eye the skeletons had made a ladder of sorts in both the front and back of the pit, using their own bodies. The one in the front leading to the dragons was being swarmed by other skeletons climbing out, they were that distraction Steve promised me, but even better, the back skeleton-ladder facing us and the tunnel entrance, was empty and free. I hoped the guards caught a clue and made use of it.

  To be honest, I’d thought they were toast, no matter what we did the ancient wouldn’t have let us take the food source, but I felt a slight stirring of hope we might rescue them somehow. Go Steve, it was a surprisingly good plan. Or at least, the best possible one under the insane circumstances.

  Boom!

  Boom!

  There was steam as the two dragons destroyed the walls, and we were bathed in fire. I lost just over twenty thousand mana from my mana shield in that attack. I imagined it would be completely gone and then some if all five dragons had attacked. Thank goodness for summon elemental.

  I could barely see through the steam, but I could see red, so I launched two more ice spikes. It’d been barely five seconds, and I hadn’t recovered mana for the third one I’d sent last time, but good enough. That still left me with an almost twenty thousand mana emergency attack.

  The others followed up on my attack, and the second dragon was taken down hard.

  Lara cursed, maybe because we were taking down their mana shields and killing them in the same round of attacks, so she couldn’t do anything. But, she adjusted this second time, and fired off a dispel magic at the last young dragon remaining on the left side. Its mana shield was taken out.

  I laughed, I should have thought of that. It helped, I’d do twenty thousand damage next time I attacked, instead of ten. Almost a third of its hit points. But… for the moment. I waited for my regen. Five seconds never felt so long.

  The three dragons on the right finally woke up and started to think, because they destroyed our elementals with their fire breath.

  The ancient dragon stirred, and looked at us, but it didn’t seem alarmed, and I didn’t get the impression it was going to attack. At least, not yet. Really, it’s incredibly large eyes which swirled with fire were staring at the five guards running toward the tunnel across the cavern. I guessed they’d gotten a clue.

  There was one dragon remaining on the left, and it breathed in deep to fire at us again. That time I put up two walls again. The first wall of ice exploded into steam, but the second wall just plain exploded and sent icy water in every direction. It’d absorbed the rest of the fire.

  With a thought, I sent two more ice spikes at that third dragon, while I simultaneously cast a spell. Another elemental. That one with the intention to save the five guards. I didn’t think they’d make it.

  The elemental shot forward and wrapped around the five of them.

  At the same time that happened, Gwen and the others finished off the third dragon on the left.

  Right then, perhaps I was right, and the ancient dragon would have been content to let its young learn a lesson. But apparently killing half of the six that were left was the final straw. Its eyes narrowed, and it started to get up, as my water elemental fled with the five guards into the side tunnel Dan made.

  “Run!”

  The ancient dragon took a deep breath as we ran for the corridor. We kind of made it. Sort of. Cassie and Lara were the last ones in, but not in quite far enough as the tunnel filled with fire. They were in the tunnel, but only by a few feet, and the fire indirectly washed into the side tunnel, as the temperature of the air skyrocketed.

  I cast the heat spell to cool it down, otherwise we probably would have cooked in seconds. I’d even taken some damage from it, indirect and non-magical damage from the heat.

  Cassie and Lara however, died.

  “Shit, grab them,” I stated the obvious as Steve and Dan picked up their ladies, and we started to run down the side tunnel.

  Dan was using control earth to close it up behind us, as he opened it up in front of us, at a dead run. We were fairly safe in the cocoon of stone, but we’d have to move fast if we were to get to our ship.

  While we ran, I also formed the spell to regenerate Cassie’s flesh, and revitalize her with life. When she gasped, I turned the spell on Lara. We didn’t stop either, and the guys just kept carrying them as we raced for the mountainside.

  I sighed, when I felt the ancient dragon pass us through the tunnel, along with his three remaining dragons.

  “What now? They’ll be outside before we will.”

  We slowed a bit, no point in being out of breath when we got there at that point, and Steve and Dan put down Lara and Cassie.

  Gwen answered, “Desperate times…” she trailed off.

  I nodded, “Right, desperate measures, good plan. Go for the eye on the ancient, on the off chance it works, we’ll take out the last three.”

  Steve snorted, “See you all in town.”

  Everyone laughed.

  Gwen asked, “Was there a penalty for that?

  Lara asked, “For us dying? No. The spell is less resurrection, than healing and resuscitation. That’s why it only works for two minutes. It only cost experience if we go to Gaia’s temple, and need to respawn.”

  I took the time to build up a rather complicated spell, as we lightly jogged for the mountainside. I was going to stack the deck as much as I could. With twenty thousand mana, technically I could create up to eighty thousand square feet of water and control it for a second. Of course, my spell wasn’t going to use nearly that much, but it was a point. We’d come a long way from the days of initiate.

  Steve said, “Almost there.”

  Everyone, including me, said, “Ready.”

  The tunnel disappeared as we broke out of the mountain, and I scanned the sky quickly. The dragons were flying above us.

  The ancient dragon roared, and it banked so it was coming straight at us.

  Steve sent what looked like a stone spike, but I knew wasn’t magically being controlled. He’d just created the stone, and then tossed it at the dragon.

  Gwen’s and Cassie’s bows twanged, and so did Steve’s crossbow.

  I cheated, because I was pretty s
ure my aim would be crap. I released the spell, and it didn’t create one piece of ice in the shape of a spike. Nope, I created about three hundred of them, all of them about three square feet of water in the shape of ice harpoons. Then the spell immediately tossed them at the ancient dragon. After that, it was out of my hands, and simply ice.

  Gwen laughed.

  Well, die happy and all that, but we didn’t die.

  Gwen’s arrow nailed the bastard in the eye, Cassie’s hit the eye ridge, and Dan’s stone spear went up the dragon’s nostril. Which, was actually pretty funny later on, in hindsight. The majority of my three hundred ice spears hit his scales and simply bounced off, but two of them went into the same eye as Gwen’s arrow, and another went into his other eye. A few even went into his gaping maw as he started to draw the large breath that meant our end.

  Of course, victory was snatched out of the jaws of defeat. Sort of.

  Unfortunately, I could still see the arrow feathers, and I could see the back of my spears. His eyes were a lot harder than I’d expected, and not so squishy as a human’s. We hadn’t come close to fully penetrating the eye, much less the eye socket, to reach his brain.

  In fact, I was sure his eyes would heal in short order, of course, once the ice melted and he managed to get the arrow out. Until then, the bastard was at least blinded.

  Which… was enough.

  The dragon roared in rage and pain, and we all dove for the ground as I covered us in three feet of ice, twice. The spell was set for three feet after all. If the dragon had hit straight on, no amount of ice I could create would have saved us, but his fire breath missed us by about ten feet, and it burned the mountain.

  Yes, it burned the damned mountain, the rocks were on fire.

  It also caused about four feet of the ice to melt, just by being near the flames, but we were still cocooned safely under two feet of ice.